The maiden commercial tanker vessel, GH PARKS, arrived to discharge cargo at West Africa's deepest and new ultra-modern liquid bulk terminal (LBT) at Takotradi Port.

The cargo operation, would signal the formal commencement of commercial operations at the new state-of-the-art terminal.

A statement from the Public Relations Department of the Takoradi Port, said as part of regulatory requirements and industry best practice, the arrival of this GH PARKS tanker vessel was preceded by the arrival of the LISSE tanker vessel for technical-testing operations, on Sunday 27th June, 2021.

It noted that technical-testing operation involved the discharge of 2000 metric tons of liquid bulk cargo, for the all-important technical operation of testing the Terminal's pipelines' integrity under conditions of high/low pressures of actual cargo discharge operation.

The vessel which arrived at 0830hrs GMT on Friday 6th August 2021, at the Port's Anchorage, went through screening process by the Port Health as well as for regulatory sampling and clearance by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).

"Thereafter, it is expected that all things being equal, the vessel shall be allowed to be brought into the Port to take berth at the new Liquid Bulk Terminal (LBT), by early morning of Sunday 8th August, 2021, for the discharge of the commercial cargo, to formally signal the start of commercial cargo operations at the new Terminal".

The LBT is 300m in length, 16m deep and designed to receive tanker vessels with maximum cargo tonnage capacity of 60,000 tons.

The facility has five loading/discharging arms, each for diesel, petrol, LPG, bitumen and heavy fuel with the Terminal Operator as Marshall Oil & Gas Services, a subsidiary of IbisTek Ghana Ltd, a wholly Ghanaian owned company, which is also GPHA's concession partner for the new Atlantic Terminal Services (ATS) Container and Multipurpose Terminal, currently under construction in the Port of Takoradi.